I understand why UY matters if you already have property, u want to line everything up. But is there an advantage for one UY over another when you are first buying?

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YES - for a few reasons that I can think of:

1) Cancellation date - there are benefits to having a UY right before the time you USUALLY travel (if you do have a regular pattern...We always plan a trip at the beginning of December). Therefore, if you need to cancel, you will still be able to bank the points.

2) the most important thing I learned by mistake - some UY are more common than others at the hotel you buy into as your home resort. I chose Sept at AKV which has either 4 or 7% of all contracts allotted to that UY ( cant remember which one but Sept is small for all resorts except OKW) which made finding a second resale contract (as soon as we realized we needed more points) with that UY much more difficult.

blessed2BaMama makes some good points. Point number 1 is probably the most important issue when choosing a UY. Point number two is perhaps a consideration if you plan on building your DVC ownership over time, but you may not be able to avoid the low availability UY if you find a contract and UY that meets you needs. DVCNews.com has the point distribution by UY charts, if you want to look at that in more detail.

In reality, most people cannot predict when they may be traveling over the 30-40+ years left on the contracts, so it may not be an issue for some. We initially started by going to WDW off season (Oct, Dec, Feb, Mar), but now that DS7 is in school, we are more on the school calendar (Spring Break, June-early Aug). Our UY is Dec, so we have to bank by the end of July. That still works for us, since we could cancel a trip that is scheduled in July and still be able to bank the points before the end of July.

The banking deadline for each UY is 8 months from the start of the UY. So Dec UY banks by July 31, August UY by Mar 31, Apr UY by Nov 30, etc. Ideally you would like a UY that has your usual travel dates in those first 8 months, so if you do have to cancel something at the last minute, you are still in you window for banking the points into the next UY. Here is a thread about use year.

I have a UY beginning June 1st and I find that it works out great now that my kids are older and we can't pull them out of school anymore, so we take our WDW vacation in the summer - with a June 1st UY, we can borrow points from the next year; this allows us to visit WDW every other year.

I have a UY beginning June 1st and I find that it works out great now that my kids are older and we can't pull them out of school anymore, so we take our WDW vacation in the summer - with a June 1st UY, we can borrow points from the next year; this allows us to visit WDW every other year.

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Hmm... maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but you can borrow from the next use year no matter what use year you have; everyone can use two (or even three) years worth of points at any time of year no matter what their use year is. The nice thing about traveling in the summer with a June use year is that if your plans change, you still have plenty of time to rebook or bank your points.

Hmm... maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but you can borrow from the next use year no matter what use year you have; everyone can use two (or even three) years worth of points at any time of year no matter what their use year is. The nice thing about traveling in the summer with a June use year is that if your plans change, you still have plenty of time to rebook or bank your points.

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You can even use 4 UY's worth of points if you take a vacation crossing your UY. It could be very bad if you had to cancel last minute though.

Hmm... maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but you can borrow from the next use year no matter what use year you have; everyone can use two (or even three) years worth of points at any time of year no matter what their use year is. The nice thing about traveling in the summer with a June use year is that if your plans change, you still have plenty of time to rebook or bank your points.

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You can borrow up to all of your annual allotment of points from the next Use Year into your current Use Year. However, you must use them in the current Use Year as they cannot be Banked back into the next Use Year.

You can borrow up to all of your annual allotment of points from the next Use Year into your current Use Year. However, you must use them in the current Use Year as they cannot be Banked back into the next Use Year.

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Yes, I understand that. But you said:

we take our WDW vacation in the summer - with a June 1st UY, we can borrow points from the next year; this allows us to visit WDW every other year.

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As I read it, it sounds like you're saying that only people who have a June use year can borrow points from the next year if they travel in the summer. I'm just trying to say that it doesn't work like that - anyone can borrow points from the next use year, no matter when they travel.

I understand why UY matters if you already have property, u want to line everything up. But is there an advantage for one UY over another when you are first buying?

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IMO the only time UY comes into play is if you have to cancel.

We have a Feb UY. Our first WDW trip on points was a December trip in 2010. We had 2010 points in use, perhaps some banked 2009 points, and I believe some 2011 points borrowed. That's a LOT of points all hooked up for a December trip with a February UY.

If we had had to cancel, we would have had until January 31, 2011 to use them. If we had had to cancel, I imagine we would not have really been *able* to travel (and finish the travel) by that time. It was a "dangerous" trip in that respect.

And in terms of not making yourself seriously confused from the very beginning, I would probably avoid a December UY. Most of the UY takes place in the *next* year, so it can really get mindboggling when thinking about it.

As I read it, it sounds like you're saying that only people who have a June use year can borrow points from the next year if they travel in the summer. I'm just trying to say that it doesn't work like that - anyone can borrow points from the next use year, no matter when they travel.

Did I misunderstand your point?

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Sorry to confuse you, the point I was making is that I like having all my points in front of me for traveling in the summertime.